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So where is "Anglo-Saxon or Norse"? Is it relevant to German?
Oh God, it seems like English stems from many European languages!!
But it's said that the first group of migrants in USA was political criminals from British, who might coin new language in new continent of USA as a symbol of new life??? Is this story right?

So where is "Anglo-Saxon or Norse"? Is it relevant to German?
Oh God, it seems like English stems from many European languages!!
But it's said that the first group of migrants in USA was political criminals from British, who might coin new language in new continent of USA as a symbol of new life??? Is this story right?

The Angles, Saxons and Jutes came from Germany. Before the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons, the Britons spoke a very different language. Norse was a Scandinavian tongue, which was spoken by the Vikings. The Angles gave English its name. The Scandinavians (most notably, the Danes) gave us many of our commonest words, even influencing the verb to be.. In England today, many place names are indicative of the Danish influence. In fact, starting in 991, England was under Danish rule for 25 years.

From The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (by David Crystal): "When one language takes lexemes from another, the new items are usually called loan words or borrowings -- though neither term is really appropriate, as the receiving language does not give them back. English, perhaps more than any other language, is an insatiable borrower. Whereas the speakers of other languages take pains to exclude foreign words from their lexicons, English always seems to have welcomed them. Over 120 languages are on record as sources of its present-day vocabulary, and the locations of contact are found all over the world."

Re: too much gas

Wow, it's really a long history about the evolution of English! No wonder it's so rich, complex and flexible...

I couldn't help wondering when you mentioned the word 'tea' is from China, ya, and just as Tdol said it's 'cha' in chinese pronuciation, but how could it turn into 'tea' which is obviously different from 'cha', so as the 'cash', 'pidgin'???
:?